Native Plants Are for the Birds

"If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big problems in the world,” said Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor and a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. The National Audubon Society agrees, so it has developed a national database of bird-friendly native plant species that attract, nourish and shelter winged visitors to backyards, wherever in the country they may be. Searchable by zip code, the Native Plant Database returns results matched to local climate and bird population, and can be filtered by plant type (tree, shrub, succulent, etc.); resource (nectar, fruit, seed) and the sorts of birds it attracts. A brief survey of Baton Rouge-area zip codes returned almost three hundred suitable varieties that promise to make your yard irresistible to everything from waxwings to woodpeckers. Try it out ataudubon.org/native-plants.